CH 85.2

Chapter 85.2 – The Soldier’s Interrogation

After walking for another 5 minutes, the sound of wings fluttering came.

The flashlight shone forward, and seven or eight human-faced birds flew in. They smiled peacefully and beautifully, and slowly opened their mouths—

The sound of melodious singing sounded.

Magnificent and moving.

It echoed in the tunnel, they were obviously surrounded by corpses and darkness, but it reminded people of deep churches, gorgeous stained glass, altars and organs as exquisite as works of art. When the holy light descended, the praying people lifted their heads and saw angels singing, coming from the top of the clouds.

The bodies of several soldiers shook, and calm smiles appeared on their faces.——

“Bang!!”

The gun rang, and a human-faced bird spun and fell! The shot fired by Lu Tinghan awakened the soldiers. They broke free of their hallucinations and raised their guns to shoot into the air.

“Bang Bang Bang!”

“Bang Bang Bang!”

The gunshots continued, and the human-faced birds screamed sharply.

One landed at their feet, its feathers disheveled, fluttering its wings to escape. A soldier stepped on its wings, and it turned its head abruptly. It was the face of a beautiful woman with feathers on her sideburns. At first glance, it looked no different from humans, even more holy.

It showed an extremely resentful and moving expression, so innocent and lovable, as if condemning their crimes.

“Angel? Go to hell!” The soldier pulled the trigger, and the bullet penetrated the monster’s head, making her moving expression solidify forever.

They arrived at the next platform.

There were still a few human-faced birds on this platform, and the soldiers killed them and continued to search.

Lu Tinghan sent a few bullets into the monster’s eyebrows, and Shi Yuan rubbed his tail’s scales beside him, scaring off the two human-faced birds – as soon as they retreated, Lu Tinghan blew their heads off.

The human-faced bird was solved. Shi Yuan turned his head and saw Lu Tinghan’s adjutant looking at him with a complicated expression.

The adjutant’s surname was Bing, and Shi Yuan had seen it many times.

Adjutant Bing knew that Shi Yuan had passed through the battlefield and ran to find Lu Tinghan. Now he saw him scare off the monsters with his own eyes. He was extremely hesitant to speak up.

Lu Tinghan noticed his gaze.

He didn’t explain, but just wrapped one hand around Shi Yuan, in which the meaning of favoritism and protection was obvious.

So Adjutant Bing withdrew his gaze.

This platform was called “Huqian Station” and was once a large transit station with easy access in all directions.

Lu Tinghan looked into the dying eyes of a human-faced bird, and after a few seconds, he said, “Their leader is nearby, well hidden.”

Adjutant Bing asked, “What should we do?”

“A team of five, split up and go find it,” Lu Tinghan said, “We must buy time, the next round of attacks will begin soon.”

The soldiers were ordered to divide up their teams and disperse to all directions of the platform.

Shi Yuan followed Lu Tinghan and several other soldiers to the southeast corner of Huqian Station.

There were route maps posted on the wall, leading to every part of the city in all directions. The font of the bulletin board had been worn out, and it could be vaguely seen that it said “Photo Contest”. There were a few old photos hanging under it, broken and faded. They were pictures of the square fountains, skyscrapers, endless vehicles, and the huge Huqian Station. Those off-white lines outlined the grandeur of the main city.

When the others were looking for monsters, Shi Yuan stayed in front of the bulletin board and watched for a while, imagining what the city used to look like.

Then, he was brought back to his senses by the voices in the distance.

That was the voice of another team. They went to the southwest corner and were only separated from Shi Yuan’s group by a wall.

“…Which team are you from? Why are you here!” Across the wall, a soldier’s voice was vague, “Are you injured?”

The man’s voice: “I, I seem to be a little uncomfortable, my head is very dizzy…”

“You stay where you are, I’ll call someone over to give you a suppressant right away!”

“No need! I don’t want inhibitors! I’m here to find General Lu Tinghan, is he here?”

“What do you ask this for? You are bleeding, I will call the medic over.”

“I’m asking you, is Lu Tinghan here?”

The soldier became alert: “What on earth do you want to do? Which team are you from! Raise your hands!”

“I see, you’re with him, all of you are on the same team.” The man murmured, “You are all…all liars! Your general is a liar!”

The soldier shouted sharply: “Stand where you are! Don’t move!”

There was a chaotic sound of footsteps.

Shi Yuan turned his head abruptly, and the man dragged his steps and slowly walked out from behind the wall. He held his hands high, followed by a soldier with a gun.

The man’s face was pale, and he shouted word by word: “Lu Tinghan! I know you’re here!”

In a flash of lightning, Shi Yuan recognized him.

He was Old Song.

It was the man he met in the base station on the day Fengyang City fell.

A bad premonition came to his heart, and Shi Yuan remembered that from the second floor of the garage, Old Song and Major Ke could just see him talking to the butterfly woman.

Old Song stood still.

Out of caution, Lu Tinghan and the other soldiers hid behind the bunker. Countless muzzles had been aimed at Old Song – he was still wearing his uniform, and his shoulder patch marked the 13th Vanguard. 13th Vanguard fought in the Western District and most of them died, Old Song was probably the only survivor.

Although he seemed… mentally unstable.

Old Song’s sharp gaze swept across the ruins, and when he looked closely, there was a faint silver light in his eyes.

He roared: “I know you are all here! I want to tell you that you have all been deceived! Deceived by Lu Tinghan, deceived by the Alliance!”

His voice echoed on the huge platform, like a tortured trapped beast.

The soldier behind Old Song scolded: “Don’t talk nonsense! Walk forward!”

His muzzle was against Old Song’s head.

Old Song turned a deaf ear and shouted sharply: “I have figured out the truth, and I will make it public today! Sergeant Huang Ruida, you don’t know this person, do you? Sergeant Huang led a convoy back to the city from the outpost of the main city 26 years ago. One night on the way, Abyss No.0 began to riot, and a child in the convoy disappeared!”

He glanced around, there was a dead silence.

He said: “That child is your General Lu! He was missing for two days and two nights! And he ended up back in the convoy safe and sound… Do you think that’s something a normal person could do? Is it?”

“You’re full of fucking bullshit!” the soldier scolded.

Old Song sneered: “General Lu can’t refute me, right?”

Soldier: “If it’s true, why has no one ever mentioned it? Full of nonsense, slander the general again and I will kill you!”

He squeezed his gun tightly, and his joints clicked.

The silver color in Old Song’s eyes became more obvious. He said, “Why has no one mentioned it? Because Huang Ruida is a wimp! He dared not say it! A child ran out of the convoy easily, what does this mean? It means he didn’t even set up a guard post, but if one monster came, the whole convoy would be wiped out! This is a serious mistake!”

Old Song sneered again: “What is he afraid of? He’s afraid that Colonel Lu and Academician Yu Qingmei will hold him accountable! Those two people are very powerful, if they knew that their precious son had gone through this kind of thing, wouldn’t they eat him alive?”

The soldier had lost patience, and knocked Old Song on the back with the butt of his gun: “Are you going?! If you don’t go, I’ll shoot!”

Old Song let out a stifled grunt and staggered.

He coughed violently: “Cough cough—! Lu Tinghan, I know you are listening! Cough—” the taste of blood flooded his throat, he took a deep breath, “And Sergeant Huang also told me, he told me a secret: he saw Lu Tinghan come back with his own eyes!”

He spit out half of his broken teeth and smiled sarcastically: “The day after Lu Tinghan disappeared, there was snow on the wasteland. A child stepped on the snow and xuejian flowers and came back. He came back chasing a ray of light. Huang Ruida saw it with his own eyes, under the light, those flowers changed from blooming to budding, and then back to buds. Time flowed backward on them!”

“There was a trodden path in the sea of flowers that led to the wilderness. This is the path the child took, the path he left, and now he sees the path again and follows it back, erasing the traces of the trampling with every step he takes. The flowers he trampled to death, the branches he broke, all came to life!”

Old Song was sweating coldly in front of his forehead and said coldly: “Why go backward, what is their purpose? Because that kid is lost! The purpose of turning back time is to let him see the way back!”

“Incredible, isn’t it? To have that kind of power and just let a kid go back.”

“Is there anything in this world that can control time? As far as I know, there is only that Abyss No.0! After Lu Tinghan returned to the convoy, the restless Abyss No.0 also stopped. Is this a coincidence? No one will believe it.”

Old Song’s eyes were like torches, and he asked in a voice: “Lu Tinghan, give me an explanation! Give an explanation to the people who have died for you here! What is your connection with Abyss No.0?! Is the guy named Shi Yuan next to you a monster?”